The Palm Beach Post from West Palm Beach, Florida • Page 124

THE PALM BEACH POST FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1989 "lih SL LO The Path Of Hurricane Hugo Hurricane Storm Surge I ml M-nnWiimiLWL 13 1 Sy 'Plunger' ttti3 Surge J' Normal high tld i Winds begin piling up water against the shore six hours or more before the storm hits, always to the right of the hurricane's forward direction. Surge height depends on wind speed, tide cycle, and the slope of the coastline. Hugo's 135-mph winds, a high tide and shallow coastline -were expected to produce a surge 12 to 17 feet high. The surge climaxes with the arrival of the eye, in which sudden pressure drops have a 'plunger' effect that generates walls of water radiating outward. Buildings will be Wept clean off' barrier islands Hugo In Brief Marines stay put, but military moves materiel to safety Palm Beach Post Staff and Wire Reports Military officials scrambled Thursday to move people and leqnipment out of Hugo's path.

From Florida to North Caroli- ha, ships were moved out of coastal harbors to ride out the storm at sea. Army posts moved helicopters in-; land or into shelters, and more than a dozen Air Force C-130 transport planes were flown to Arkansas to Wait out the storm. Parris Island, S.C., the U.S. Marine Corps boot camp for the eastern United States, recruits are Used to crawling in the mud. Thursday "would be a good day for it," public affairs officer Capt.

J.R. Mill said. The 8,400 marines were staying put, Mill said. "We're just as safe here in the shelters" as on the mainland, Mill said. "We have provisions to stay for some time." Schools may call games Officials were to decide today whether to shift to Sunday afternoon the South Carolina-Georgia Tech and Maryland-Clemson col-.

lege football games, both scheduled for Saturday in South Carolina. The hurricane also was expected to force many South Carolina high schools to call off games. Shuttle won't be moved At Cape Canaveral, NASA decided it was safe to keep shuttle Atlantis on the launch pad for an October launch. It will take about two days to reconnect all the wires disconnected when it appeared the storm might threaten the Cape, NASA spokesman George Diller said. But some leeway has been built into preparations, and it may not be necessary to delay the Oct.

21 dir. in if- rr7 1 LAI Motorists jam northbound U.S. Highway 501 away from Myrtle Beach, S.C., and Hurricane Hugo. Evacuees adjust their attitudes shelter looms long ill I I 'J i I i 4. I it 'if 1V I A HUGOfrom 1A Charleston Mayor John Riley warned residents to expect the worst.

"There will be more flooding as a result of this storm than any Charlestonian has ever experienced. It will boggle the mind," he said. The timing was terrible; the storm's tidal surge, a dome of water 12 to 17 feet high, came ashore on top of a high tide that was expected to peak after 2 a.m. today. "On top of that will be waves," National Hurricane Center Director Dr.

Bob Sheets said. On many barrier islands, "the buildings will be swept clean off," he said. The storm could lash the area with hurricane-force winds for up to 12 hours after landfall and could spawn scattered tornadoes for two days and drop 5 to 10 inches of rain, forecasters said. Because much of Charleston is below sea level, officials expected major flooding. Devastation littered Hugo's path.

Troops arrived Thursday in the U.S. Virgin Islands, where anar- chy and looting followed the destruction wrought by Hugo. Near the storm's first target, Guadeloupe, a French helicopter carrying rescue workers crashed into the sea Wednesday night; six died and three were missing. By late Thursday, Hugo was a Category 4 storm, second most powerful on a scale of one to five, and it sprawled across an area bigger than South Carolina. It was the most powerful storm to strike South Carolina since Hazel, which struck Myrtle Beach in 1954 with winds of up to 150 mph, killed 95 and left $252 million worth of damage.

Into the evening Thursday, fleeing residents clogged every major road leading from the Southeast coast, filled hotel rooms inland and sent visitors scurrying to airports. Officials put evacuation totals at 200 in Florida, up to 150,000 in Georgia, at least 125,000 in South Carolina and 40,000 in North Carolina. South Carolina Gov. Carroll Campbell placed the state's National Guard on standby for possible looting and advised evacuees not to stop until they were west of the state capital of Columbia, 112 miles miles northwest of Charleston and 140 miles east of Myrtle Beach. Forecasts of a powerful storm surge convinced even longtime residents to abandon their homes and head inland, authorities said.

"If we stay here and get killed, we're just plain crazy. We've gotten the warning," said Jack You-mans, a 63-year-old retiree who serves on the town council of Tybee Island, Ga. The coast had begun feeling Hugo's strong winds, high seas and rains earlier in the day. Heavy rain started falling about 7:30 p.m. in Savannah, and by about 8:30 p.m., power lines were beginning to fall.

At 8:15 p.m., sustained winds were measured at 70 mph in Georgetown, S.C, and 50 mph in Myrtle Beach, S.C. In Charleston, already without power, police cruised the streets about 10 p.m. Thursday, stopping people and telling them to go home or to the 25 to 30 shelters that were housing 25,000 to 30,000 people. At about the same time, fallen power lines had knocked out electricity to most of Myrtle Beach. Commercial and military airports closed Thursday night in Savannah, Myrtle Beach, Beaufort, and Charleston, S.C; and New Bern, N.C.

The Myrtle Beach Airport closed after two afternoon flights took off, each stranding 30 people with standby tickets. Amy Cue, a USAir passenger with a ticket for a canceled flight to Pittsburgh, grimaced as she and a companion got the news from a ticket agent: "You are numbers 28 and 29 on the standby fist" for the last flight out, the agent said. A JOHN J. LOPINOTStaff Photographer in 8 hours Hilton Head. It was accomplished in half the time.

Officials were unable to estimate the numbers who fled Hilton Head because of the great numbers of tourists who most likely returned home rather than seek haven at a local shelter. "The bulk of the population has moved here since 1959, and they've never experienced a hurricane," said Dick Vallandingham, spokesman at Beaufort County's emergency operations center. "They know the stbrms by what they see on TV, and that scares them." THE ASSOCIATED PRESS A sign in Savannah, greets the storm. The National Hurricane Center issued a hurricane warning about 6 a.m. Thursday for an area from Oregon Inlet, N.C.

to Fernandina Beach. A hurricane watch and tropical storm warning extended from Oregon Inlet to the coast Delaware. Earlier it had stietchei to St. Augustine. As the Southeast coast braced for Hugo, governors declared states of emergency, and evacuations were ordered or recommended in coastal areas of north Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina.

Along the coast, evacuees mobbed hardware stores and supermarkets, stocking up on plywood, batteries, tape and drinking water. By afternoon, most shops had closed and sent employees home. Some merchants used the storm as an advertising tool. "Hugo is near Better beer!" announced the sign at a convenience store on Whitemarsh Island, Ga. A frantic Cleland Belin cut short a business trip in Atlanta to return to Savannah and board up his four-bedroom home on Wilmington Island, which he built two years ago.

"I've never been through one of these before. I've got no flood insurance," he said. "A lot of oldtimers who have ridden out hurricanes in the past didn't stay this time," said Tybee Island, Ga. Police Chief Dave McCutchen. "They've learned that these things are no fun." Myrtle Beach, which has 145,000 permanent residents but twice that many during the summer, became a ghost town as its residents drove west or headed for emergency shelters.

South Carolina's evacuation order, which in Myrtle Beach covered everything east of the Intracoastal Waterway, didn't sit well with some residents. "Ain't nobody making me leave," said Tommy Edwards. But he acknowledged that Hugo was the worst hurricane to visit Myrtle Beach in at least 10 years. "I got a bad feeling," he said. "This is gonna be it." Staff Writers Eliot Kleinbetg and John Fernandez and wire' services contributed to this report.

New York readies aid for Puerto Rico The Associated Press NEW YORK New Yorkers prepared Thursday for weekend telethons, fund-raising concerts and church collections to benefit Puerto Ricans left homeless by Hurricane Hugo. A Trump Shuttle plane was to leave this morning, laden with tons of supplies, including clothing, air mattresses and water. "We're going to load it up with as much as we can get on the airplane," said Bruce NoblesTpres-ident of Trump Shuttle. launch, he said. The launch of an unmanned lasCentaur satellite Sunday was delayed one day, Diller said.

N. Florida evacuations Florida's emergency operations center went into full gear Thursday morning, with Gov. Bob Martinez declaring a state of emergency in coastal Nassau, Duval and St. Johns counties. State offices and schools were closed and voluntary evacuations recommended in Nassau and Duval counties, where waves were coming over dunes on beaches Thurs- day afternoon.

Skies were reported clear by evening. Coastal airports close Airports in coastal cities in the path of Hurricane Hugo got out as many flights as they could Thursday, then closed. Commercial and military air- ports closed Thursday night in Savannah, Myrtle Beach, Charleston, and Beaufort, S.C.; and New Bern, N.C. Airports in the major southeastern hubs of Atlanta, Charlotte and Raleigh-Durham were not affected by late Thursday. By early evening, airlines had canceled incoming flights into the coastal cities, and aircraft were flying out to safety, often full of people doing the same thing, said John Whiteside, spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration in Atlanta.

It was not known when the closed airports would reopen, Whiteside said. Iris no longer a threat WEST PALM BEACH Tropical Storm Iris deteriorated into an area of thundershowers Thursday afternoon. About 6 p.m. Thursday, reconnaissance aircraft and satellite pic tures indicated Iris was no longer an identifiable system, and the National Hurricane Center stopped issuing advisories on the storm. Iris fell apart because winds from nearby Hurricane Hugo sheared the top off the cylinder of circulation that is the core of a tropical storm system, said Frank O'Leary, a weather specialist with the National Weather Service Office at Palm Beach International Airport.

The local forecast calls for a chance of rain through Tuesday. Hilton Head By CHARLES HOLMES Palm Beach Post Staff Writer HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. This famed resort island emptied Thursday as thousands fled inland to escape Hugo. The same scene played out all along the coast from Georgia to North Carolina as residents and tourists on the low-lying barrier islands moved to higher ground, but nowhere was the evacuation as striking as Hilton Head. shops, their display windows protected by tape and plywood, were eerily empty, and in as night at By CANDY HATCHER Palm Beach Post Staff Writer MYRTLE BEACH, S.C.

It made no difference whether those coastal South Carolina Thursday were lifelong residents or first-time visitors. When Gov. Carroll Campbell said get out, they got out. Thousands went to shelters, packing blankets and beach chairs, cards and coolers to wait out Hurricane Hugo. By 3 p.m.

Thursday, more than 500 people lined the hallways of Myrtle Beach High School. Shelter manager Jim Miller expected 1,500 to 2,000 people before the night was over. They napped. They read. They argued.

They made new friends. Helen Blessing, 74, rolled up her pants legs, plopped down on a rubber raft and turned up the radio. "I'm not gonna let it ruin my vacation," the Charleston, W. woman declared. Christine McDonald, 20, sat quietly on a blanket near the medical room.

It was her first wedding anniversary. She was thousands of miles from her family. And her baby was due any day. "If I could've found a way to go back to my momma's, I would've," she said. But she couldn't.

So the Oklahoma native waited for her husband, a cab driver whose company was providing free transportation to shelters. McDonald was hoping the baby would delay its arrival until after the storm passed. She wanted no reason to name the child Hugo. Down another corridor of the school, a group of 44 Bethlehem, golfers had set up living quarters. They had been on a golf course Thursday morning when emergency officials arrived with a one-word order: Leave.

"I finally had a par on a hole," said John Fliszar, a 16-handicapper who had organized the weeklong trip. Six-month-old Roberta Jessamine Vereen was oblivious to all the commotion. She cooed at clears out; championship golf courses swelled with water. Luxury hotels were dark as electricity to the island was intentionally cut early in the day. "This is the way Hilton Head used to be.

No crowds," said Bill Bowen as he scanned the large waves pounding the empty beach at Sea Pines on Hilton Head. Bowen, 32, a Charlotte, N.C, businessman, drove to Hilton Head Thursday morning to board up his four-bedroom beachfront home. "Since acts of God aren't covered by insurance, I figured I'd better come down here and do something i JOHN J. LOPINOTStaff Photographer Tracy Jordan (left) and Toni Messer prepare for Hugo's arrival by taping windows of their gift store in downtown Myrtle Beach, S.C. strangers and sat happily in a bas- sought shelter at the high school ket, caring not a bit that she might were again evacuating for a point be homeless after Hugo's visit.

farther inland. Hugo was coming. Four hours later, Roberta Jes- It promised to be a long, fitful samine and the 500 others who had night. resort empty about it," he said. Though a roadblock at the only bridge linking the island to the mainland prevented traffic from entering Hilton Head, police and security guards cruised the empty streets on the prowl for looters.

The order to evacuate came Thursday at 6 a.m. Officials cut power to much of the island five hours later to prevent transformers from exploding and to prod residents and tourists to leave. The warnings worked. Beaufort County authorities predicted it would take 16 hours to evacuate.